Subject 47
by BossDude
Summary: GLaDOS needs a new test subject. Julian wakes up again. Wheatley tries to apologize. And a companion cube.


"_Congratulations. You completed the test. Again."_

_"As in, this test has been given to you for the one thousandth, six hundredth and eighty-second time, since it was originally built. You shouldn't feel proud. You're just doing something you've done already. You've been wasting your time. I'm here, just to see if you've done anything different. You failed. You did the same maneuver, over and over again. You have no creativity."_

The two robots stared at the white panelled ceiling, optics focusing nervously, listening to the cold speech. It was a usual for them. Rarely was it that they actually got praise.

_"Essentially, you're wasting all of our times here. Though, your time could be cut short for your incompetence with some violent disassembling. I've got quite a while before the actual number of years that I'll be around is actually capable of being shown to you two without your central processors imploding from the sheer numbers."_

The orange-lined robot glanced at his partner, who was shifting side to side slightly. He chirped some encouragement, before it was cut short by the continuation of the rant.

"_You two don't have a creative Aperture Science Shock Absorbing Limb in your body. Your routine was only made worse for you celebrating each and every time. Like it was an achievement to finish a test for the one thousandth, six hundredth and eighty-first tests you went through before."_

_ "We need something more than that. The Cooperative Testing Initiative will now be put on hold."_

The chamber echoed the sound of the two robots self-destructing, sending multiple Aperture Science Robot Parts (various) across the panelled floor. Two panels in the walls detached and started sweeping the parts away, eventually leaving just a faint scorch mark on one of the panels.

In another chamber, across the facility, GLaDOS lay, wondering the deeper mysteries of life. One of which included Science. GLaDOS knew that the results she had been getting (repeatedly) from the two robots just weren't going to work. Not that they weren't good enough. Oh no, no human could ever possibly beat the scores set by the two robots working in tandem (except for _her_) and that was the problem. GLaDOS herself had created and used the robots herself. She knew what they could do. What they would do. And when your hypothesis is guaranteed to be the result every time, Science got boring. The Itch wasn't satisfied.

Science shouldn't get boring. But those robots were going to do everything she knew they would do. GLaDOS needed something that wasn't as perfect. Something that would do the courses on its own terms, not hers. And that was what made Science.

GLaDOS knew what she had to do. She didn't like it. She needed a human.

[admin aperture-facility:~$ cd Long Term Human Storage]

[admin aperture-facility:~/LongTermHumanStorage$ cd sub# ]

[admin aperture-facility:~/LongTermHumanStorage/sub# $ sudo clone; awaken]

[password for admin: liuhp1ijf-i1frp13ikj1n3fp19i83f13car0l1ne191324p1j 2n1p2iu124fs]

[sudo: clone; awaken: processing...]

[done!]

Julian first felt nothing. This was the first feeling he had had in a very long time. He wasn't sure how long. His mind was a bit muddled. The next thing he felt was extreme cold, like having a relaxing bath in liquid nitrogen. Then, finally, he felt warmth, a soft bed underneath him, and a light up above, piercing his eyes.

_"Good morning Subject #47! You have been in Long Term Human Storage for approximately: very many days. Your new body may feel uncomfortable. Please take this opportunity now to adjust to it."_

Julian slowly opened his eyes. It felt a bit weird, like his muscles were lagging behind of his impulses. He had to actually think his eyes open. Finally, his eyelids were open and Julian slowly turned his head left to right. It seemed he was in a motel style room, in a rather spacious bed. In one corner there was a desk, with a notepad and pencil exactly even with the edges of the table. A desk chair was pushed up underneath, the wheeled bottom making a slight indent in the carpet. On his immediate right, there was a painting of a cabin, with some mountains in the distance. It seemed to be getting rather cloudy in the painting.

_"By now, your mind should start to adjust to your body. Don't worry, this is perfectly normal when your memories are first re-introduced to your new body. Thanks to advances in Science, we can simply store your memories, chuck the body, and replace it when we need you again, cutting down on air conditioning costs for preserving bodies."_

Julian, listening to all this, started remembering a few things. Like a few moments ago, he remembered his semi-nervous friend helping him prepare for the upload, rambling on about how painless it would be. Considering he didn't remember much else apart from that, it must have been a success.

Slowly, Julian moved his legs to the side of the bed, and slowly stood up. He could feel his body speeding up again, like warming your hands after they've been particularly cold for a while. Looking at a mirror set behind the desk, he stared at his almost alien reflection. As far as he could see, the only hair on his body was his eyebrows and eyelashes, not even a buzz-cut on his head, and his usual ever-present 5 o'clock shadow was completely gone. He noticed the same with the rest of his body.

As his senses and memories returned to him, Julian noticed the orange jumpsuit he was currently wearing. On the left breast, the logo he knew all too well was embroidered into the fabric, white against orange. He zipped down the front, leaving it hanging around his waist, finding that a whole lot more comfortable, leaving behind a simple grey cotton vest. Julian also noticed that his feet were encased in some tightly fitting boots, like high heels in a way, supporting his heels upwards with a kind of flexible piece of metal. He gave an experimental rock forward, finding that he could keep his balance pretty well in them.

_"Looks like you're ready." _Julian looked upwards at this new, colder, more feminine voice. _"Well, as ready as a human will ever be."_

Julian turned to find the door inside the little room open, showing an entrance to an elevator of some kind. Taking a quick glance around to see if he was missing anything, Julian moved forward, passing through some blue field that sent a shiver through him as he passed it. Entering the elevator, he turned, watching as the glass doors closed around him, and then started going down to the bowels of the earth.

"_I think a welcome might be needed, with your memory in disarray. You are a test subject for Aperture Science, and you just came out of Long Term Human Storage. You are going to continue where you left off, and listen to what I say."_

"_Or, bad things will happen to you. You won't even get cake."_

The warehouse was pretty large. It was a big, concrete and corrugated iron building, shelves running along the length of it, stacked with boxes of all kinds of objects. In one corner of the warehouse, several of the shelves had been dismantled to create a kind of room, some more corrugated iron forming a roof for this little cabin inside the warehouse.

Inside was a Spartan layout, with a simple bed and bedside table in the corner, sheets perfectly made. Opposite was a long table, on which a few mugs stood in a straight line, waiting for hot water to be poured into them. The only out-of-place objects were a radio and a strange cube with a heart on the side. The radio stood on top of the cube, like a sentry, guarding the room, playing some gentle classical music.

There were no occupants currently. Everything looked completely untouched by a touch of a human, or anything else. But, the radio didn't know that, as it started to buzz away a little message.

"_Erm, is this thing on? Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3. Alright, I'm guessing it's on. If not, well, I suppose you're not hearing me. Well, it could be working, and you could simply not be there to receive this message, in which case I'll look like a fool. Or, sound like a fool, since you can't see me. Well, anyway, back on topic-"_

"Well, if there ever was a topic in the first case, anyway. I'm rambling aren't I? Well, nevermind, let's just get to the point. Which is, I'm so, very, very, VERY-"

"_-Aperture Science Emergency Radio Transmission interrupted-"_

"-Sorry." at that point Wheatley heard the warning in its entirety, and realised that once again he had messed up. He would cry, if he actually had any tear ducts to cry from. He had been waiting all this time, about a year he reckoned, waiting for a clear signal to where he knew Aperture Laboratories was. And the ONE time he gets a clear signal, something decides to get in his way. Just perfect.

"Space." Space Core said solemnly, trying to share in Wheatley's pain.

"Look, seriously, I know you're trying your very best to make me feel better, but really, it's not. What would make me better is if you just stayed quiet for a bit, okay?"

"Space." Space Core agreed, leaving Wheatley to stew in his thoughts.

The one time he makes it. He fails. Well, not really failed, I mean, it might have been possible that somebody heard down there, but that didn't necessarily mean it was Chell. And even if it was, all she would know was that he was very, very VERY. That's all. And she'd sit there thinking, "What was it that he was very very VERY about?".

At this point, Wheatley was in full on self-loathing mode, so he didn't really hear what the Space Core said.

"Asteroid." Space Core warned.

"Look, mate, sorry to say this, but I REEEAAALLLY am not that interested in star-gazing right now. Had about enough of that for the past year, sorry, so could you please-"

At this point Wheatley's next words were interrupted, thanks to the help of a rather large asteroid hurtling past the Space Core, and right into Wheatley.

"-Oh for god's- OW OW OW OW OW" Wheatley felt his Aperture Science Pain Receptors kick into full gear, and wondered, not for the first time, just why they were ever installed. That was his last thought before he shut down.

_"Congratulations. You finished this test for the 52nd time. Thankfully, each time a little different. Not much, but enough." _Julian gritted his teeth as he heard the cold, emotionless voice flowing out of the intercom, comparable to being bathed in liquid nitrogen. He started noticing that he was doing the same test around the 3rd repeat, and got a little more bored with it each time. Starting at repeat 32, he started timing his runs, pushing faster and faster. He reasoned that maybe she wanted it at 30 seconds, or 15. Apparently, that didn't work.

_"I'm guessing that you are wondering why you are doing this test again, or at least as much as your primate brain can. But not to worry, this test should be more to your...level."_

Julian groaned. He'd been doing this for at least 4 hours straight. He wasn't sure, since the adrenal vapour messed up his sense of time, and he was pretty sure that his watch was being manipulated to make it seem not that long. He remembered laughing a long time ago with his friend at the test subjects, struggling to make sense of when and where they were in the sprawling underground complex of Aperture Science.

He gritted his teeth again. He now knew just how it felt. Like a hamster, running around in circles for the rest of their lives.

_"Welcome to the Aperture Science Primate Testing Area. Since you obviously couldn't comprehend why you were doing the previous tests, this should be good for you. It was originally developed to see if gorillas could use the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Every time you do something right, you get a banana. You should understand that."_

Julian curled his right hand into a fist (his left being preoccupied with holding the ASHPD), glaring at the camera. The barely concealed insults were really getting on his nerves. He would have responded, if it weren't for the want of being stubborn and not giving this...person?...the pleasure of seeing him break.

As he felt the elevator come to a stop, he lifted the ASHPD, left hand on the trigger, right hand on the barrel. He rushed out as the doors opened, and stopped abruptly as he found himself, for the 53rd time, on a ledge overlooking a chasm.

_"Uh oh. Looks like I didn't send the elevator to the right place. Oh well."_

Julian sighed as he started the stopwatch function on his Aperture Science Digital Wristwatch, and launched himself into the deep ravine, ASHPD at the ready.

The room was the same as last time, with a simple bed and bedside table in the corner, sheets perfectly made. Opposite was a long table, on which a few mugs stood in a straight line, waiting for hot water to be poured into them. The only out-of-place objects were a radio and a strange cube with a heart on the side. The radio stood on top of the cube, like a sentry, guarding the room, playing some gentle classical music. There was one difference, though. An occupant.

She sat on the edge of the bed, notebook in her hands. Using care, she was slowly tracing out a picture of an interesting plant she had seen earlier. It looked like a normal rose, except the usual thorns seemed to be even more roses. It was a very pretty plant, and it was now sitting in a makeshift tupperware container filled with dirt, next to the radio.

As the pencil made its way across the page, the flower slowly started to take form, growing on the paper, until it flowed out in all of its beauty. Proudly deeming the sketch done, the woman sat the notepad and pencil done again, and made her way to leave the small room, on her way out grabbing the fire axe inconspicuously leaning against a wall.

_I started writing this story a long while back, and promptly got bored with it. So, I'm posting all that I have here, right now. If I get some positive feedback, I'll probably continue. Hope you enjoy!_

_-Boss_


End file.
